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Don’t Let Today’s Loss Distract You From The Fact That Joey Votto is Hitting .500 vs. the Cubs

Today’s loss sucked. Everyone’s saying it. The Reds got a great 7-inning performance out of Luis Castillo where he only allowed one run on three hits and put the home team in a great position to win the second in a three game series in front of a sellout crowd. I don’t know why so many Reds fans were wearing blue, but it was a sellout nonetheless despite the brutal heat.

The bullpen returned the favor by giving up five runs over the next three innings, pretty much crushing my spirit and putting my phone at risk for needing the benefits of the Apple Care policy I wisely purchased when upgrading to the 8-Plus, no big deal. The only thing more at risk of being smashed into a thousand pieces today was Pedro Strop’s jaw, compliments of Mr. Puig.

A lot of people are looking at the score, looking at the 3-0 count and saying there’s no way Strop would try to hit Puig in that situation. That’s EXACTLY the situation you throw at someone if you want to hit him. Not to mention, he almost hit Puig on the first pitch of the at bat before pitching him inside again and eventually hitting him on the fourth pitch.

Lost in all of the chaos and the Reds pissing away another stellar performance from their ace who is firmly in the Cy Young race is the fact that Joseph Daniel Votto is hitting a cool .500 against the Chicago Cubs.

Votto made it easy on all of the mathematically challenged Cubs fans from northern Indiana by going 2-for-4 and keeping his season average vs. the Cubs at .500 after Saturday’s matchup. Joey’s been catching fire and has completely reversed his poor start, and I for one am pleased that much of the turnaround has been because of the Cubs.

Since May 24, Joey Votto is batting .366 with a .440 on-base percentage. In that span, he ranks 4th in batting average and 3rd in OBP. https://t.co/zXQFQwHUdk

The Reds have the opportunity to win the series tomorrow and move to 6-3 vs. the Cubs on the season, but it’ll be difficult as they send out Anthony DeSclafani to take on Jon Lester, who has dominated the Reds throughout his career.